y no means with a like necessity. Unquestionably
the latter shared the conviction of his day, that not only the
substance, but the words, of the biblical dogma were sacred. Schumann's
case was not at all similar. He had before him, in the poem to be set
to music, a work of art which, although once remodelled, would still
permit every formal change required by aesthetic considerations. How
easy, for example, it would have been to abolish the narrator, as
destructive of unity!"

Had the narrative passages been omitted, it would unquestionably have
enhanced the interest and perhaps relieved the monotony and wearisomeness
of some parts of the work. Unlike the usual manner in which the
narrator's part is treated,--as a mere recitative link between
numbers,--Schumann invests it with the same importance as the acts and
events themselves, and treats it melodically, so that the relief which
comes from contrast is lacking.

The oratorio is written in three parts, for solo voices, chorus, and
orchestra, the principals being the Peri (soprano); the Angel (alto); the
King of Gazna (bass); a Youth (tenor); the Horseman (baritone); and the
Maiden (soprano). The choruses are sung by Indians, Angels, Houris, and
Genii of the Nile, and the part of Narrator is divided among the various
voices. The story follows that of the original poem. The Peri, expelled
from Paradise, stands at its gate weeping to think

"her recreant race
Should e'er have lost that sacred place."

The angel who keeps the gate of light promises she shall be re-admitted
if she brings "the gift that is most dear to Heaven." The Peri goes in
quest of the gift, first to India, where she procures the last drop of
blood shed by the hero who resisted the tyrant Mahmoud, and takes it with
her to the gate; but the crystal bar moves not. She continues her quest,
and from the pestilential plains of Egypt she takes back the last sigh of
the maiden who sacrificed herself to her love for the youth who stole out
to die alone. But still the crystal bar moves not. At last, in the vale
of Baalbec, she finds the gift,--the tear of a repentant sinner,--which
secures her admission.

After a brief orchestral introduction, the Narrator (alto) tells the
story of the disconsolate Peri at the gate, and introduces her in the
first solo ("How blest seem to me, vanished Child of Air"), a tender,
beautiful melody, characterized by romantic sentiment. The Narrator